May 11: The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) today blamed the second split in the party as well as weakness at the grassroots level for its downfall in the elections.

AGP general secretary Hitendranath Goswami, who lost the Jorhat seat for the first time since 1985, said, “The party’s grassroots level became weak and unorganised following the split.”

The split occurred after former chief minister and AGP’s founder president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta formed the Asom Gana Parishad (Progressive) last year, after he was expelled from the former for “anti-party activities”.

AGP spokesperson Apurba Kumar Bhattacharyya, who described the results as “unexpected”, also blamed the division in the party for the situation and said it had to be pay for the “sins of the past”.

“We are yet to come out of the shadows of Prafulla Mahanta regime,” he further said, referring to the plethora of scams and scandals during the second AGP government in 1996-2001.

Another senior AGP leader said the poll results would put party president Brindaban Goswami under pressure, as he failed to lead the party to power.